1) An old creative writing teacher once told me he read a short story that took place in an old house. As a writing exercise, he tried to write down everything he remembered from the description of the house from the story. He wrote about the wood floors and the way they creaked when you walked on them, the chipped and peeling paint of the walls, the doors of the rooms that stuck, the mold in the basement, the dust in the attic…
When he finished, he had nearly ten pages of description.
When he went back and found the book that contained the story to compare to what he remembered, the description of the house was barely two paragraphs. Less than a page.
His imagination had filled in all of the other stuff on its own.
That’s what great writing should be.
2)
So fucking good.
3) Saw a movie over the weekend about a talented athlete who missed his shot at greatness and has spent the ensuing decades drifting from team to team, still chasing that initial high of his glory days. He’s recruited to come work with a younger athlete who has the potential for greatness, but lacks discipline and humility, and won’t put the needs of the team above his own.
If you think I’m talking about the Kevin Costner movie BULL DURHAM (or a half dozen other sports movies with the same plotline)…
No.
I’m talking about the Brad Pitt movie FI.
F1 is a decent movie that will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about professional racing, but at 2 hours and 35 minutes, it’s too damn long. They could easily have cut 30 to 45 minutes out of the movie and you’d still have a good film.
But the filmmakers seem to be under the impression the audience wants to see Brad Pitt throw playing cards in multiple scenes, and having flashbacks to a near-fatal crash 30 years ago, and squinting his eyes because his eyesight is failing, and the subplot about the young pit-crew girl who screws up constantly, but finally gets good at working the car jack after 20 races and some words of wisdom from Brad…
The movie is good, but would have been much better with a trimmer runtime. With 25 minutes of previews and commercials, I was in that theater seat for over 3 hours.
If I’m going to sit still that long, I either want to see a Martin Scorsese film, or watch the Avengers fight Thanos.
That’s your Dispatch for the week.
Slade Grayson is a writer who relies on the kindness of strangers. And readers. And sometimes strange readers. You can buy his books here, or buy him a coffee here.